Snag Your Copy J.B.: A Play In Verse Created By Archibald MacLeish Conveyed In EText

by the facilitator of my writing group, I have always found the story of Job to be an ugly one, The play is a retelling of the story in verse, A study of the nature of God, I loved its use of classical theatrical elements like masks and that the whole thing plays out in a circus like tent, I've directed this play three times and read it about, MacLeish's poetry is phenomenal, and this modern take on the Biblical story of Job is fascinating, In the end, J. B. denies both God Zues and Satan Nickles, turning to human love as the only solace for human suffering, Even the staginga circus ringis unique, When Job's "comforters" are replaced by a Marxist, a priest, and a psychologist, MacLeish is devastating in his criticism of such shallow attempts to explain human suffering.
It's quite simply the best and most unique play I've ever read/directed, This retelling of the Biblical story of Job was written while the horrors of World War Two, especially the destruction of Hiroshima, were still fresh.
It holds up well today, MacLeish does a fine balancing act between recounting and questioning the original tale, In particular, the “happy end” of the original is placed in a bitter light, “Mrs. ” Job, a onedimensional figure in the original, becomes a believable character, As Sarah, she neatly counterpoints J, B. s expansive postwar American outlook, Their dialogue deftly delineates the two branches that developed out of New England Puritanism, I also liked the device of having God and the adversary who tempts him into flinging J, B. into incomprehensible suffering played by two hasbeen actors who don masks for their parts, reminiscent of the personae of Greek tragedy.
Poetical, polemical, philosophical, pessimistic, pragmatic, . . have I run out of P words yet A play unafraid to confront the Big Things in life, taking the Book of Job as its starting and ending place, and exploiting that place until exhaustion.
Constantly contradicting, constantly redefining, it's a work that encompasses the full breathe of human experience, I don't know if I'd like it as a play to see sounds exhausting, but as a thing to sit down and read stage notes included it's pretty terrific.
Based on the story of Job, this drama in verse tells the story of athcentury American millionaire banker whom God commands be stripped of his family amp wealth, but who refuses to turn his back on God.
J. B. won the Pulitzer Prize for drama inamp the Tony Award for best play, More important, the play sparked a national conversation about the nature of God, the meaning of hope amp the role of the artist in society.
JB is described as a poetic drama, I got into the rhythm of it and began to appreciate the accomplishment of describing peoples suffering in life and the debate over mans guilt vs.
innocence. The play ends with these key lines:

“Blow on the coal of the heart,
The candles in churches are out,
The lights have gone out in the sky, ”

I got the feeling that MacLeish was an atheist and reflected with amazement that we read this radical message in high school in.
For a play that garnered such critical praise in its day, "J, B. " seems to get surprisingly little attention these days, It's actually a better play than I thought it would be, I saw a college production over twenty years ago and remember it well, It adheres very tightly to the biblical "Book of Job," while simultaneously allowing significant latitude for performers, directors, and other artists, Like a preacher in a pulpit, MacLeish has embellished on a facet of the original story that appealed to him personally, contextualized the greater narrative around that facet, and managed to tell an old story in an original voice.
Nickles, violently: Job won't take it! Job won't touch it!
Job will fling it in God's face
With half his guts to make it spatter!
He'd rather suffocate in dung
Choke in ordure

I took a God amp Suffering philosophy class in college, so of course a good chunk of the semester was spent in Job.
We didn't read J. B. but the prof recommended it to us, I see why. I'd give half my arm to see this performed by people who really knew what they were doing, The growth of Nickles's desperate fury alone would be worth the price of admission, if the actor got it right, I also like that Mr, Zuss wasn't an entirely buffonish character he actually had some wisdom and depth of his own, unlike a lot of makeSatanthegoodguy stories, Nickles and Zuss were pretty wellmatched, in the end, And I love the redemption of Sarah, which wasn't so much a redemption as it was a parallel character arc to Job's, just one that happened offstage.
That she got the last word in the story was, . . a lot for me to process, actually, What a good choice. Both because she has suffered exactly as much as Job has, and thus deserves her own through line, as well as because, . . well, Job's already talked himself out,

As any good Godandsuffering story will do, the story does not give concrete answers, It suggests, through Sarah, that love for fellow man is the only worldview which will make life worth living, which isn't a bad one to come out of J.
B. with, but I like that it's a thin comfort, for the most part, It lets you live, but it doesn't really

answer any questions, The actual answers that Job gets aren't as clearcut, and they don't always allow for moving on past them, because they're either too contradictory or too painful to let alone.
It's the riddle of Epicurus stuff all over again, not original in its workingout but compelling in the visceral nature of its old situations and old arguments.
This production won both thePulitzer Prize for Drama and theTony Awards for Best Play and Best Direction, I read this in High School almostyears ago and still had the original book, It is a modern retelling of the biblical story of JOB, and one where a faithful JOB, while remaining faithful through his trials, holds fast to his innocence and struggles with the arbitrary injustice of suffering, and God's rule as witness and protagonist to that suffering.
This is a story that still has much to teach while honoring our free will and honesty in questioning, Why Still brewing over this.
some really stunning and heartbreaking passages, Read this to play with as a potential added read for my Faith, Doubt, and Literature course, We do read excerpts from Job as well so that's fascinating, J. B.
By Archibald MacLeish
Pulitzer Prize winning Play


The world sucks, I could say worse but right now that is all I have strength for the world sucks,
However two ways to look at that world however, However there is a silver lining or however damn it there is a silver lining,
I wrote a poem in January of“My Job Days,” it was well received in my writers group, Rod really great guy, brought me the play J, B. the next writers group meeting and told me to read it,
Brilliant a brilliant play and just as frustrating as the book of Job itself,
We all have our causes poverty, workers rights, antislavery, anti sex trafficking so many harms in this world, so many disasters, It is hard to take when personal tragedy is answered by a question,
As a matter of fact it is mind bending,
Ive finished J. B. , and it has nearly finished me,
Nearly.
Of course it ended in a humanistic flare he repented of nothing he accepted that he is not God but that was not what redeemed the love of human for human redeemed.

And it is funny now, that has been my biggest sin love of man, the desire to be loved by a creature that does not know me.
How can he Did man create me make me move away from death, instill in me selfpreservation Oh damn another question,
But the answer is no no, he, he, he, he, he, he, nor will he ever replace HE,
You know, maybe man wasnt meant to be saved at all but the second, the warrior who struck back verbally at the serpent, maybe it was she who was meant to be saved and he, he, he, he, is saved by default.

And it is mostly men reading this, scoffing at the word, “saved,” well you would, wouldnt you you dont need to be saved from this world she does.
And blindly she, she, she, she, she, comes back, just like Sarah to J, B. She comes back to be human rather than seek her own whirl wind, And why wouldnt she, built as she is the lure of sex, the contentment and afterglow of orgasms, the feeling of partnership after God has dealt His tremendous blows.
Ah deception, deception works in wonderful, wonderful ways and the result she would rather be a slave than be alone,
J. B. is brilliant yeah I said that already but it is true it is brilliant,
.